LXVI

Monument Square

G. Washington Warren-Peter Hubbell-George D. EdmandsThe Edmands Family.

T

HE building on the corner of Monument Square

and Chestnut Street, the present residence of

George D. Edmands, and the adjoining building, the home of the widow of the late George W. Little, whose quiet and useful life cannot be easily forgotten in Charlestown, were erected by Honorable G. Washington Warren and Peter Hubbell, who were the pioneers in the improvement of the lots as they had been laid out around the Monument. They planned and put up these fine architectural houses, occupied them, and enjoyed them for many years. They were attractive homes, where comfort and taste and the entertainment of friends could be, and were, enjoyed. There must be many in the land of the living who can testify to the correctness of this remark. They were among the bright spots in the social aspect of the town and contributed their share in making a favorable impression as to its social standing on the minds of visitors and strangers.

Mr. Warren was the president of the Bunker Hill Monument Association from 1847 to 1875, twenty-eight years, and many distinguished visitors to the Monument were entertained by him here with liberality and elegance. The history of the Association, a book of over four

hundred octavo pages, compiled by Mr. Warren, is an interesting and valuable volume, a record of the past of the Association, and of its contribution to the literature of the country in the addresses of its presidents, copies and fac-similes of valuable letters, and the many speeches of eminent men delivered on its anniversary and other occasions Webster, Everett, Winthrop, Andrew, and Devens being among the number.

Mr. Warren was the son of Deacon Isaac Warren, about whom we have said something in an article on the former residents of Bow Street. He was a graduate of Harvard College in 1830, was mayor of the city for the first four years of its life, 1847-'50, a director in the Charlestown Gas Company, one of the trustees of the Warren Institution for Savings, and represented the town and city in both branches of the Legislature. He delivered the Fourth of July oration before the City of Boston in 1881. He was judge of the municipal court for a quarter of a century, and a marked figure in the history of Charlestown while it was a separate city. He died Sunday, May 13, 1883.

Peter Hubbell came to Charlestown from New York State very soon after the completion of the Charlestown Branch Railroad in 1843, when its termini were Fresh and Spy ponds in Cambridge and the Charlestown wharves, the road having been constructed especially for the transportation of ice. Mr. Hubbell had large experience in brick-making, and the late Nathaniel J. Wyeth, connected with Mr. Tudor in the ice-business, had, in the vicinity of Fresh Pond, valuable clay-lands that he proposed to develop as additional business for the new railroad. A contract for the excavation and delivery of the clay by Mr. Wyeth at the brick-yards,

and a low rate of transportation by the railroad company, were the inducements for Mr. Hubbell to close his business in New York and come here. The scheme was a very successful one, the business added largely to the receipts of the railroad and was very profitable to Mr. Hubbell, who soon took up his residence here and continued it until his death, January 9, 1871. A little while before this occurred he had formed the Bay State Brick Company, which has kept up the business to the present time. Not long after Mr. Hubbell came here he met with a serious accident. His custom was to go to the works every day, on the train. He was a very active man, and often jumped from the platform while the cars were in motion; but he made one jump too many and lost a leg as a consequence. But the amputation of a limb did not dampen his ardor, and it hardly lessened his activity. With an artificial limb and the use of a cane he disguised his infirmity and kept about for years as if nothing had happened.

Mr. Hubbell was a man of fine presence, a much esteemed, energetic, and busy citizen. Outside of his regular business, the Charlestown Gas Company and the Monument Bank, of both of which he was president, can be cited as evidence of his enterprise. He was practically the founder of the bank, and he was the life and soul of the gas company in its early days. Saint John's Episcopal Church and Society were marked by his friendship and energy, and by the membership of himself and wife, on whom the patriotic and benevolent movements of the town could ever depend for assistance and hearty encouragement.

The present occupant of the Warren house, Mr. Edmands, is of the firm of Preston & Merrill. He is

also the able treasurer of the Colorado Smelting Company. Preston & Merrill were originally apothecaries. They began the foundation of a large fortune by the manufacture of baking-powders, with which for many years they leavened the whole of California as well as many other places of rising importance. The baking-, powders were exchanged for gold, and the gold for goldmines, which the Colorado Smelting Company has been working to the profit of its stockholders for many years and is not yet out of breath.

Mr. Edmands belongs to a very old Charlestown family. Walter Edmands was here and admitted to the church in 1652, and his wife two years after, in 1654. Some of their descendants have made their homes here ever since. John Davis Edmands, the father of George D., and his brother, James Capen Edmands, were prominent in their time as thrifty and enterprising mechanics. Some of the buildings erected by them can still be shown. The brick store on Main Street now occupied by W. P. Henry as a provision-store, and the brick building that makes the corner of Devens and Middlegate (now Prescott) streets, were erected by James C. Edmands. The upper room of the first-mentioned building was at one time known as Edmands Hall. The lower part was a book-publishing store, the occupants of which are referred to in another article.

Thomas Edmands, a cousin of the before-mentioned brothers, was a very popular man. He was one of the early commanders of the Warren Phalanx and one of the original members of the company when it was chartered in 1804. He will be best remembered as of the old, well-known book-publishing house of Lincoln & Edmands, Boston. His son, General Benjamin F.

Edmands, was long known as a military man and an expert chief-marshal on many public occasions. Another son was the Honorable J. Wiley Edmands, for many years a partner in the distinguished firm of A. & A. Lawrence & Co., and a member of Congress for one or

two terms.

Benjamin and Barnabas Edmands, brothers, were also cousins to John D., James C., and Thomas. The former has been referred to as a resident of Washington Street. Barnabas, whose homestead was in Richmond Street (Rutherford Avenue), in his early business life was a brass-founder, but he gave this up and, assisted by his brother-in-law, William Burroughs, established a pottery on Austin Street, not far from the State Prison. It was a family joke that, inasmuch as their ancestor, Walter Edmands, the first settler, was a distiller, it was but natural for his descendants to take up jug-making. For a time in the early history of the pottery Frederic Carpenter, the father of the late Marcellus Carpenter, was a partner with Mr. Edmands. After many years the pottery was removed to a wharf-estate on Mystic River which had been purchased by Mr. Edmands. In 1850 he sold the business to his sons, Edward and Thomas R. B., and Charles Collier, who had been his foreman, and they continued it under the style of Edmands & Co., adding to it the manufacture of drain-pipe; the latter part of the time by machinery, an invention of Mr. Collier's for the purpose having been patented. This part of the business has now been given up, owing to western competition which has made it unprofitable, but the original pottery-manufacture is still kept up by Edmands & Hooper, as successors to Edmands & Co., at their kilns on Medford Street.